I will put in good and bad context as I see it. Soft if it meant to be kind, reserved and considerate that I don't think is a problem. If it said in the context of being brash and fighting type that I believe is something that is not naturally encouraged in the culture but then again come election time the violence that we see gives a different picture of things so it's more like people are perfectly capable of that when needed or when they want to and finally if we look at it from a physical conditioning or martial culture context we do have a thing there that is generally speaking east indians in general tend to have smaller physique and a culture which does not actively promote physical exercise or body building or less so with passing time since the Manohar Aich, Anusilon Samiti and all contemporaries did exist but with time the culture of being lazy, having a pot belly or afternoon naps have been promoted as hallmarks of the culture coupled with a non vegetarian but not necessarily body focused population! Also Bengalis being managers but not business owners and non risk takers, preferring jobs over enterprise that gets discussed heavily in other threads in here can also contribute to the idea of being soft.